British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
